Oaking on chips for a year might be a bit much. Even with this big beer. You have a LOT more surface area on oak chips than a barrel. Since you are putting in so much effort, I'd contemplate spending the $ on a 10 gallon barrel.

I tried to talk my buddy into making 15 gallons of finished product, then we could put it into one of my 3 year old 15 gallon wine barrels After 3 years and 3 different batches of red wine run thru it the oak profile is beginning to tone down. I said I'd pitch in 2/3 of the cost of a new barrel (the ones I use are from Gibbs Bro in Arkansas, a 15 gallon new barrel goes of $185 or so) if he ponied up the other 1/3. I can't see using the barrel for wine again after we store beer in it for a year or so, so I'd be losing that barrel from my cellar. But his wife is preggers and she is making him crazier than he already is and he's not willing to jump. So it's going to be a year in carboys and oak chips in the bottom.

"I'm kind of toasted. But I looked at my watch and it's only 6:30 so I can't stop drinking yet." - Yooper's Bob"Brown eye finally recovered after the abuse it endured in Ptown last weekend, but it took almost a full week." - Paulie"no, he just doesn't speak 'stupid'. i, however, am fluent...." - motobrewer"... I'll go both ways." - Melana

I know my barrels are good. I take wine out and put wine back in the same day, I'd be wicked leery of someone elses. I don't want to look a gift horse in the mouth but unless I know that the barrel has been scrupulously taken care of I doubt I'd use it. Too many unknowns in an unknown barrel. I was at a conference on wine once (Ya, I'm a wine geek) and one guy gave a lecture that really stuck with me. He talked about how using someone elses unknown equipment was like sleeping with them and everyone they've ever slept with. You don't know what was in that barrel and what might be growing in it now. A whisky or scotch barrel I don't think I'd have as much a problem with since the higher concentration of alcohol would tend to kill off the brett. And although brett can work magic on beer, it ain't going anywhere near this one. So I think I need to pass on that, thanks anyways Tony.

I remember reading an article awhile back about a guy who brewed a 24% ABV beer. His scenario sounds pretty similiar to yours in a lot of ways. One thing that stuck with me was how he built his starter and how he handled primary fermentation.

To build his starter, he boiled up and put in jars a bunch of sterile wort. Pitched one or two viales of yeast, added oxtgen and one jar to start the starter and then every day for the next few days added one of the jars of wort and more oxygen. It sounded to me like he was essentially trying to take the yeast through four lifecycles before actual pitching, it resulted in a huge starter with a massive amount of yeast.

Then when he was fermenting, he pitched half the starter into 2 gallons of the high gravity wort and let it ferment for a few days. He then added a gallon of wort, oxygen and part of the remaining yeast every few days once fermentation slowed until all five gallons were added. Essentially supplying oxygen and fresh yeast with each new wort addition.

i like doing big batches, i have a 38 gallon MLT that works wonders.... my buddy and i regularly mash in 42 to 45 lbs of grain, for doing 10 gallon batches AG of our imperial stout.... we only fill about half the mash tun at this volume, i think it would be ideal for your project, the maxcold coolers are amazing, the best on the market IMHO the 38 gallon maxcold is only sold through academy sports IGLOO MAXCOLD 152-QUART ICE CHEST its specially made for them, it was only 80 bucks and its a great way to do larger batches of higher alch beer (look for academy sports coupons they can sometimes be found)..... our imp stout is only 10.2% abv with a OG of 1.103 I think using a mashtun like this would be a cheap way to work it for you guys, i just use a cpvc manifold on all my mashtuns its really really cheap, and by having such a large thermal mass youll be able to better hold your mash temps having all your grain mashing in one place than in separate places, especially considering how long you are mashing for, i normally do 90 minute mashes and in subfreezing weather and i loose less than half a degree.... the maxcolds rock ill post some pictures of my setup when i get around to it

FWIW, I have done two high gravity brews. Not 24%ABV, but they were 16.5%.
One was a Samichlaus styled beer. And the other a jacked up version of Hair of the Dog's Adam. Both started at 1.142 and chewed down to 1.020.
I used the Wyeast Hella Bock lager strain, which is the Samichlaus yeast. Both are outstanding beers.
My process for keeping the yeast working was to make a 5 gal starter. Made a simple pilsner. Fermented it out. Then on brew day, racked off the pils (also scooped out a big spoonful of yeast and put inot a 4L E. flask to build up another starter), racked on the syrupy wort. Oxygen was added for two minutes every 2 hours until signs of fermentation, about 6 hours.
After about 10 days when fermentaion slowed, I decanted the starter, and added the yeast to the carboy. From here, I swirled the carboy everyday for about another month and a half to keep the yeast up in suspension. It took a total of 2 months at 48F to get down to 1.020. I then racked off the yeast and lagered for 8 months before bottling.
I figure if your OG is large enough to produce a 24% beer, and you add new yeast through out the process you might be able to it up there.

i like doing big batches, i have a 38 gallon MLT that works wonders.... my buddy and i regularly mash in 42 to 45 lbs of grain, for doing 10 gallon batches AG of our imperial stout.... we only fill about half the mash tun at this volume, i think it would be ideal for your project, the maxcold coolers are amazing, the best on the market IMHO the 38 gallon maxcold is only sold through academy sports IGLOO MAXCOLD 152-QUART ICE CHEST its specially made for them, it was only 80 bucks and its a great way to do larger batches of higher alch beer (look for academy sports coupons they can sometimes be found)..... our imp stout is only 10.2% abv with a OG of 1.103 I think using a mashtun like this would be a cheap way to work it for you guys, i just use a cpvc manifold on all my mashtuns its really really cheap, and by having such a large thermal mass youll be able to better hold your mash temps having all your grain mashing in one place than in separate places, especially considering how long you are mashing for, i normally do 90 minute mashes and in subfreezing weather and i loose less than half a degree.... the maxcolds rock ill post some pictures of my setup when i get around to it

Cheers!

o yah btw did you guys ever do it or are you still dreaming?

The bold was as far as I could get saying it out loud. That's a huge sentence, this thread must have gotten you jazzed about MLTs.